Beijing

Early in the week, I went to the Dongyue Taoist Temple which was fantastic. I learned a lot more about Taoism. I got some photos but they seem to have been lost somewhere along the line. It was quite large with various halls honoring each god; there were about 300 different ones. A hall is more like a room. Each had a wooden depiction of the god and some disciples and evilers. People could buy small red wooden things to put in front of certain gods which they felt they would like to be looked upon favorably by, or put money directly into a box. There were about a million (literally) of the red blocks hanging from the god of the gods temple in the middle. In the back was a room with photos of the temple during its decline during the Cultural Revolution. It wasn't until the 1990s that it was restored.

The Forbidden City is mindblowing. I didn't really understand the concept of royalty, but I think I do a little bit now. The sheer size and intricacy on every single aspect of the City is unfathomable. Everywhere you look is a new, tiny detail. To top it off, the Forbidden City was only used during two dynasties (the last two-- Ming and Qing). Directly north of the city is a Buddhist Temple on a hill in a park which provides a beautiful view and a direct look at the haze that permeates Beijing. The air quality in Beijing is like LA on double its worst day, pretty much everyday. Most of the tourists are Chinese and I caught a few of them taking my picture. While I was there, the entire western side of the city was shut down in an extremely orderly and quick fashion by the PLA. They herded everyone to the east. The Chinese asked no questions but I said what's going on... one of them acquiesced to tell me that "Someone important is coming to visit" but I couldn't get any more information than that. So, I only saw half of it but it still took four hours.

This is only the second front courtyard:


Overlooking the Forbidden City from a Buddhist Temple on a big hill directly north of it. Nice'n'hazy:


Looking at the temple from the FC:


"Large Stone Carving" -- it's a ramp the emperor walked up when he traveled. He only walked out of the exact center of the Forbidden City. This thing was huge and had a sign saying it was made in northern China, then dragged miles and miles during the winter along an ice road to be installed in the Forbidden City.


Where the emperors sat to perform a ceremony of some sort that I can't remember. Three soldiers guarded the room out of the picture. It smelled like a carpet store:


Continuing northward, towards most of the modern city:


On Thursday, I went to an astronomy observatory. Most of the instruments are from the 1400s.


On Friday, I hiked six miles on the Great Wall. It went from Jinshanling in inner Mongolia to Simatai in Beijing Province. It took four hours to get there! It was the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. The Wall goes up and down the mountains forever, it's extremely steep in some parts. On the Mongolia side, there were endless numbers of Mongolian peasant women who would follow you. They ask where you are from, tell you about themselves and point out their homes from the Wall (far below) and their corn fields, talk about their families and then try to sell you a T-shirt or postcards. Every single person I saw had one of these women attached to them, they were the hardest workers I have ever seen and must be related to mountain goats because they have zero trouble with the most difficult parts of the wall.

One of the first ones to attach to me:




I went home and slept for six hours, then went to the airport at 6am and flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Connected to Chennai.